A small but intrepid group of Port Macquarie sailors assembled on Sunday morning for the planned Summer Marathon, but with a lack of wind and the second safety boat undergoing maintenance, plans were changed to run two short summer series races instead of the marathon.

The first race started with barely 5 knots from WSW and approaching the high tide with very little movement making it a little easier to avoid the glassy patches of water with no breeze. Only two laps were planned with the overly optimistic intention that the duty officer would extended the race to three laps if conditions improved.

Competition was very close despite the different classes and while not very impressive for spectators, competitors were pulling out every trick in the book to gain an advantage. At the end of the first race, the time between first and last place was less than three and a half minutes.

Terry Howard in Flying Dragon won the monohull division on yardstick followed by Martina Holt in Spellbound, Jeff Walsh in Serenity, Steve Bohlsen in Interceptor and Stuart Symons and Steve Couch in Elmo. With handicaps applied, results were: Interceptor, Flying Dragon, Spellbound, Serenity, and Elmo.

Dave Winter on Spica took the win as the only catamaran division entrant with several members out representing the club at other regattas.

The second race of the day enjoyed another knot or two of breeze varying from WSW to WNW and with the tide now running out to add to the equation.

While most crews had some form of run in with the mudflats while trying to avoid the tide, Flying Dragon lost a lot of time in one grounding, allowing Spellbound and Serenity to get across the line in first and second place. After Flying Dragon was Interceptor and Elmo. Handicap results were: Interceptor, Spellbound, Flying Dragon, Serenity, Elmo.

Again, Spica took home the points in for the catamaran division.

Next weekend the 60^th NS14 Championships will be held at Port Macquarie and with many club members lending a hand to organisers, the regular club race has been cancelled. The next club race for Port Macquarie Sailing club will be a double header on March 26^th, consisting of Summer Series Race 8 starting at 11:30am and 6^th Club Championship starting at 2pm.